How extreme does Chennai's weather get?

The hottest, coldest, wettest and snowiest days Chennai has recorded — the outer limits of what its weather can do, and how far they sit beyond a normal day.

Based on 50+ years of daily weather observations (1973–present), from the Madras/Minambakkam station 14 km away. Updated through August 2025 — an all-time extreme only changes when a more extreme day actually occurs, so some dates are old. That is normal, not stale data.

The four kinds of extreme

The hottest, coldest, wettest and snowiest single days Chennai has recorded — each shown against what a normal day that time of year looks like.

🔥 Hottest day

112°F May 29, 1998

That is about 11°F hotter than a normal May afternoon in Chennai (typical high near 101°F).

The three most extreme on record

1 112°F May 29, 1998

2 112°F May 22, 2003

3 112°F May 29, 2003

❄️ Coldest night

54°F Jan 7, 2002

About 15°F colder than a normal January night in Chennai (typical low near 69°F).

The three most extreme on record

1 54°F Jan 7, 2002

2 59°F Feb 24, 1974

3 59°F Nov 1, 1974

🌧️ Most rain in one day

13.58 in Dec 2, 2015

More rain in a single day than Chennai usually gets in the whole month of December (typical December total about 5.6 in).

The three most extreme on record

1 13.58 in Dec 2, 2015

2 11.61 in Nov 12, 1985

3 11.57 in Nov 13, 1985

How hot and cold it gets, month by month

The shaded band is the normal range of daily temperatures for each month. The dots show the most extreme it has ever been — so you can see how far beyond a normal day the records really sit.

normal range of daily temperatureshottest ever recordedcoldest ever recorded

Chennai's record heat sits well above even a hot day for the season — May's 112°F is about 11°F beyond a normal hot afternoon. Its record cold is just as far below a normal winter night — the dots mark how rare each extreme really is.

In plain terms

In a normal year, Chennai's warmest days reach the low 100s°F and its coldest nights drop to the high 60s°F. But across the record it has gone as high as 112°F and as low as 54°F. A single day has delivered over 14 inches of rain. Those are the outer edges worth knowing if you are moving here, planning a trip, or thinking about a house.

Methodology & sources

Temperature & precipitation — 1991–2020 normals computed from 24 years of daily observations at Madras/minambakkam, a weather station, about 14 km from the city centre. The underlying daily records come from NOAA's global station network.

How we build these numbers →

← Chennai city detail